Centre ready to resume talks with ULFA

New Delhi, June 12: The Centre today conveyed to the newly-formed Nagarik Santi Mancha Asom (NSMA) that it was willing to resume talks with ULFA provided the top leadership of the banned outfit join the negotiations unconditionally.

National Security Advisor M K Narayanan told NSMA president Dr Indira Mamoni Rysam Goswami that the Government will not hesitate in its efforts to establish a lasting peace in Asom.

He said the government was ready to talk with ULFA leadership but only after it receives a formal communication in this regard from either ULFA president Arabindo Rajkhowa or the General Secretary Paresh Barua that they were ready to join the peace process without any pre-conditions.

Dr Goswami said ULFA may also send an emmissary to attend such peace talks and the jailed leaders of the outfit can be consulted for facilitation of the talks.

She said the government has all along been assuring a safe passage for all those underground ULFA leaders who intend to join the peace talks with the Centre.

Dr Goswami said earlier a five-member delegation of NSMA has called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil here yesterday and submitted a memorandum to them stating that the goverment should not treat the three demands of ULFA as ''pre-conditions'' for the resumption of talks.

She said these demands included discussion on sovereignty issue for Asom, release of five ULFA leaders lodged in Guwahati jail and information regarding the whereabouts of some ULFA cadres apprehended during the joint operation carried out in Bhutan in 2003.

The NSMA memorandum pointed out that insurgency is a global phenomenon and it breeds on corruption, inequality and injustice. The entire North East has been flooded with these ''three evils'' since long due to inadequate infrastructural development, total neglect of human resource development and wanton corruption among bureaucrats and politicians, it added.

It said deployment of the Army would not solve the problem.

''Army is to protect citizens and to save the country from outside aggression, not to be used against citizens.'' The memorandum said, ''Freedom of speech and expression is a constitutional right. ULFA has demanded sovereignty to free Asom from perpetual neglect of the State's interests. This should be considered only as a voice against injustice.'' It pointed out that the Centre had already held discussions with NSCN and with some Kashmiri militant outfits.

Dr Goswami said, ''We understand that independence and sovereignty are two sides of the same coin, thus there is no reason in rejecting the request for resumption of peace talks on the premise that ULFA wants to discuss sovereignty as one of core issue.'' The memorandum also urged the government to provide the information regarding the whereabouts of some of the ULFA cadres apprehended during the joint operation against them by the Bhutanese and Indian armies in 2003.

Responding to a question Dr Goswami said they will convey this message to the ULFA leaders with the help of the media and would try to pursue them to participate in the peace process talks and shun violence.

The NSMA also expressed its deep anguish over the recent killings of innocent non-Asomese people in various parts of the state by the militants.

''When there is already acute shortage of jobs for the educated unemployed youths in the state how could the government allow the Railways to recruit its fourth grade staff for Asom from a state as far as Bihar,'' she added.

UNI

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